It would be difficult to argue Cook Strait carries quite the same romanticism as a palm-fringed bay, but on a nice day it has its own delights.
On Monday, under pleasing blue skies and with fair seas, the interislander ferry Aratere made its last crossing, from Picton to Wellington, after 26 years plying the often-tempestuous stretch of water.
While the Aratere has had its problems over the years, particularly in more recent times, the 12,600-tonne Spanish-built vessel has crossed the strait about 53,000 times, carrying more than 5 million passengers and more than 2 million vehicles, including 500,000 trucks.
Of course, it isn’t just the Aratere which has sailed off over the horizon. So has $671 million of taxpayers’ money, as a consequence of the government’s canning in December 2023 of a contract for two new ferries from South Korea.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis put a stop to the plans after concerns were raised about the budget for new ships and port infrastructure ballooning to more than $3 billion.
Now the full cost of the cancellation of Project iReX has become clear, with a final $144m forfeiture payment to Hyundai.
Rail Minister Winston Peters is defending the $671m payout as "only fair", given it was not due to any blunder by Hyundai, and believes it to be a "seriously good deal" compared to other estimates of the possible cost of default.
It may well be that. But there is now no rail-enabled ferry linking the islands, meaning more freight on trucks and greater wear and tear on the highways on both sides.
Two new Cook Strait ferries with rail decks and room for up to 40 wagons won’t be in service until at least 2029.
With the retirement of the Aratere, State Highway 1’s marine stretch is weakened, and the gulf between South Island and North Island widens metaphorically.
As far as the Labour Party is concerned, the ferries fiasco gives them the opportunity to go full-steam ahead on bashing the government, even though it was the Labour government which Mr Peters says spent hundreds of millions of dollars on new ferry consultants rather than on tangible port buildings and equipment.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says it is important to remember Mr Peters commissioned the iReX project in 2020 when he was part of the government.
But Mr Peters says the decision for much larger ships was made the following year, when he was no longer a minister.
Mr Hipkins also points out Ms Willis’ "recklessness" in cancelling the contract has flushed hundreds of millions of dollars of public money down the drain.
Importantly, New Zealanders are still waiting to hear how much the new alternative is going to cost, he says.
"We need a reliable interisland ferry service. It’s a vital connection between the two major islands of our country. It is part of the state highway network. It’s part of the rail network."
Yes it is. From a southern perspective, it is difficult to shift the feeling this government hasn’t treated such a crucial link with the seriousness and urgency it deserves.
If Auckland and Wellington were on different islands, it is a good bet there would have been much faster progress on new ferries.
It’s easy to get misty-eyed when a stalwart of the New Zealand scene takes its retirement. The Aratere will be missed.
But its vagaries, which have put safety at risk, will not. We can’t forget the power failures, the lost propeller, and its running aground shortly after leaving Picton in June last year, due to an autopilot mistake.
However, as the Aratere disappears down the main channel of history to lay-up in the meantime at its berth in Wellington, is there just a small feeling of being caught between the devil you know and the deep blue sea?
